Spartanburg, South Carolina, April 17, 2003 . . . Synalloy Corporation (Nasdaq:SYNC), a producer of specialty chemicals, dyes and pigments, stainless steel pipe, vessels and process equipment, announces a loss for the first quarter of 2003 of $.06 per share on a 1% sales decline to $20,299,000. This compares to a loss of $.19 per share in last year's first quarter.

Sales in the Colors Segment were down 1% from a year earlier resulting in an operating loss of $6,000 compared to a $528,000 loss reported in 2002's first quarter. Selling prices continued to decline causing the sales decline. The significant reduction in operating loss came from an increase in unit volumes resulting in improved cost recoveries of manufacturing costs, and from cost reductions implemented in the third quarter of last year. The Colors Segment has generated positive cash flows for four consecutive quarters and operating costs have been reduced to levels consistent with current sales volumes. However, the textile industry continues to struggle and competition among dye suppliers to maintain market share reflects the excess capacity that exists for supplying textile dyes. Management is continuing to explore ways of improving its return on capital for this Segment and minimizing capital employed.

The Specialty Chemicals Segment had a 7% increase in sales which generated operating income of $52,000 compared to a $123,000 operating loss for the same quarter last year. The improvement came from a combination of slightly improved business conditions, especially at the Cleveland, Tennessee plant, and from cost reductions implemented in the third quarter of last year. The Segment has now had four consecutive profitable quarters reflecting the Company's objective of expanding sales into non-textile markets moving away from the textile industry as current sales into the textile industry are running less than 15%. We believe this Segment should continue to operate profitably consistent with current general economic conditions, but there can be no assurance that this will occur.

Dollar sales for the Metals Segment declined 5% from a year earlier as a result of 21% lower unit volumes partially offset by 22% higher average selling prices. The lower unit volumes came from lower piping systems' sales and commodity pipe for the first two months of 2003. However, commodity pipe unit volumes for the month of March 2003 were back in line with the monthly averages of 2002. The increase in selling prices came from a more favorable product mix and to a lesser extent, price increases for commodity pipe. The operating loss of $100,000 was about one-third last year's first quarter operating loss of $333,000, as piping systems more than accounted for the operating loss. The decline in operating loss came from the improvement in selling prices coupled with the cost reductions implemented in the third quarter of last year, offset by the poor piping system performance. We are currently experiencing increases in demand and selling prices for commodity pipe as evidenced by our March results. We are hopeful that this trend will continue over the balance of the year, which should generate an improvement in profitability, but there can be no assurance that this will occur.

Prospects for piping systems are improving as quoting opportunities are becoming available. However, we are having difficulty getting the releases from customers to put work into the shop. This situation is improving and we believe that there is sufficient work scheduled to return piping systems to profitability in the second quarter, but there can be no assurance that this will occur.

For more information about Synalloy Corporation, please visit our web site at www.synalloy.com.

Contact: Greg Bowie

(864) 596-1535